


Mirna's Tree

by burusume



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers, Yugotalia
Genre: Angst, Diary/Journal, Drama, OCs - Freeform, Original Character Death(s), war mentions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-26
Updated: 2018-07-26
Packaged: 2019-06-16 16:31:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,974
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15441126
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/burusume/pseuds/burusume
Summary: Dražen's diary used to paint a mundane, but pretty world, until the day the pavement got painted all red.





	Mirna's Tree

**Author's Note:**

> A pretty late submission to the now second-to-last biweekly prompt of the balkantalia-hub, Nostalgia! 
> 
> Mostly Dražen, a diary’s pages and some OCs. Drama. References to a real lot of events from the 90s, personal headcanons, but I haven’t delved into politics. Please check out the notes at the end if you finish this whole thing. Asks on what in the world did I mean by having a character act that way are always welcome. (tumblr @burusume)

_July 14, 1989_

 

Today, only Adrijana, Bojan, Jolanda and Karla came in, since their parents are still very busy with work. Jolanda’s mom gave me a call yesterday to tell me that she’ll have to let her in my care until  August 23 , when she’ll finally get on break. Working as a nurse is very time-consuming and I’m decided on having a talk with her concerning Jolanda’s current and future development.

 

 **DON’T FORGET** — buy another set of wax crayons for Bojan

— !!! catch Jolanda’s mom and talk to her, tell her Jolanda shows abilities for designing various tools, suggest her to find other adult supervisors to keep check and interact with her, let her stay outside and play more, tell her I can provide Jolanda with materials to develop her abilities

— get more materials for Adrijana and Karla to make clothes for dolls from

— get them out on snail-hunting (if tomorrow morning it rains)

— pay a visit to Mirna, give her the birthday presents and bring fish and veggies to baba Mojca

  
  


_October 7th, 1989_

 

The weather has suddenly turned very cold and many of the kids are staying home, sick. I’ll have to buy more oranges so that the lady chefs can make more juice. I’ll have another talk with the principal for trying to convince her to invest in more fruits to build up the kids’ immunitary system.

 

Baba Mojca’s radiators are leaking water, I have to buy them a portable one. The hot water is on and off and they can’t make do forever with boiled water mixed with cold one, I have to think of a solution.

 

I don’t want to see Mirna shiver after a bath ever again.

 

**DON’T FORGET** — !!! talk with the principal about the kids’ menu, keep calm, try and offer her your insight

— buy one or more portable radiators (depends on price) for baba Mojca’s apartment, figure out the hot water problem

  
  


_December 26th, 1989_

 

It was shocking to see that the prosecutors decided to execute the Ceaușescu couple, and on the holy day of Christmas, too. I feel like future generations of Romanians will have to pay for this. I should contact Anca or Mihai anytime now, but I’m not sure when would be the best time to do that. The country is still in turmoil.

 

I’m having Mirna staying over for this winter vacation and I convinced baba Mojca to stay over with us too. This way, I solved the hot water problem for at least this holiday. I’m thinking of telling Mojca to let Mirna or even her come over anytime they want to take a bath, but the more I mull it over the more offensive to them it seems.

 

I’m very happy to see Mirna’s lightened up since she began her stay: I knew she had it in her to dance and have fun! Santa brought her a lovely Afro doll, three thick books and lots of candy.

  
  


_March 18th, 1990_

 

Slovenia is going to have its first democratic elections held with multiple parties next month. Janez isn’t involved, but he told me that he heard of plans for an independence referendum too, no idea of the date, though. He’s for independence, but that’d more than likely call for the JNA to invade the country, and they couldn’t hold up against that for long.

 

Baba Mojca’s liver’s almost gone, the doctors don’t give her much time left. Thankfully, the preparations for taking over as Mirna’s legal tutor are almost complete. It’s a hard time for her, even for me, to go through, but Mojca seems to know better than me how to comfort her. I hope she’ll come to love me after it all warps up at least a quarter of how much she loves her grandma.

  
  


_November 21st, 1990_

 

Janez’s heard of movements between different organisations, forces, structures and God knows what else there is within a defense system from pals in the military. I haven’t been able to contact Vuk for two weeks now, Milica is going to head for Belgrade as soon as she catches a break at her job. Jalal must be on another trip around Albania, we all should take notice of this more, too. Idriza told me she thinks she once saw Jalal in the store she works undercover, and that he must’ve noticed her too. His adventures aren’t the concern of any of the republics’ government, not even the organisation that helps him with housing cares about it, it all makes me feel sick to my gut. I’ll have to get Šćepan to track him. And Vuk.

 

Mirna has adapted very well to living with me, and her situation in school remained unchanged: very good. Their former flat already has another socially-challenged family living there, so I’m done with that business now. I scheduled a visit each Sunday to baba Mojca’s grave, but I’ll have to make out rarer and rarer visits as time goes on. I wish she wouldn’t try to hide her grief like that often, it pains me to see that I can’t seem to help her enough with all of it.

 

**DON’T FORGET** — !!! contact Šćepan

— keep in touch with Milica

  
  


_September 23rd, 1991_

 

The kindergarten is still closed, but it’s the best solution that’s been found for me and other parents. I heard there are still air raids and snipers firing at pedestrians in Zagreb, so I can expect that to happen anytime here in Split, too. It’s been a very sad summer for Mirna, but I can’t, for anything in this world, let her go outside. She’s been asking me about what’s happening “on the other side of the country”, of why people who used to live together are “giving each other bumps in the head” now. Milica told me that the last time she got a hold of Vuk over the wire, he said he’s coming to Croatia to save the Croats in Vukovar. I’m worried he might’ve finally snapped after all of those years.

 

We’ve been reading together, dancing, singing as loud as we can in this cage. It’s for sure that the conflict will get worse, I’ll definitely have to get drafted, but I don’t want to leave Mirna in the care of anyone else. And if the worst were to happen to me, the word will get around faster than I’ll be able to come home unscathed, on some medical leave. We’re both not ready to talk about this secret of mine yet.

  
  


_November 16th, 1991_

 

They took away my child. They fired that shell and killed her. Out of anyone else who could’ve died yesterday, Mirna had to be one of them. They killed my child because I let her get out the store while I was waiting in line, they killed her while she was jumping on the pavement, in that minute, it all took just a minute to kill her.

 

Mirna, before they place me in an unit, I’ll write you a letter for what you can do and how you can play in Heaven. I hope that the flowers will only rot away the moment you do, underground. You’ll always be under every chestnut tree I will come across. No cemetery will ever have to throw you out. You’ll become one with the land, too soon, way too soon, but I promise you, Mirna, the moist soil will make you its beautiful princess, like you’ve always wanted.

  
  


_September 3rd, 1995_

 

I came back to Split some months ago, but I didn’t find any reason to write in this diary again. I’m recovering after I got my legs blown off in a minefield. Over the knees, so it’s gonna take a while. It’s the kind of raw pain that never leaves you, it’s something that I’ve never had to go through before.

 

I started to go outside and play chess and cards in parks. I can do it just fine in a wheelchair. The weather is still warm but I can’t leave the house without at least a blanket wrapped around my legs. I have to leave it like this when I’m at home too, because I can’t bear the constant sighting of the stumps. I don’t want to have any nurse around either, but I’m fine so far.

 

My old pupils recognised me, and while they were sad to hear that I have some little problems with my legs that will keep me from walking for a while, they were glad that I was alive. Luka’s mother insisted on taking me to the hair salon she works at or giving me a haircut on the spot, in the park. Even if the world as I knew it will never be the same ever again, now I think that the people at least will never change.

 

I told my secret to someone. There was this girl, Radmila, acting all bratty around the place, I could see that she felt like she didn’t fit anywhere. She’s older than my pupils, but they’re all kids so they know each other, even from eavesdropped conversations. She’s very intelligent, and she’d busy herself  around me for awhile in attempts of making me strike up a conversation with her.

 

Rada’s parents are busy with “stupid stuff”, as she told me, so as for us to both be able to talk undisrupted and with our stomachs full (she gets easily irritated when hungry) her parents agreed on her dropping by my place (her idea; her parents apparently know me through the parents of one or more of my pupils so they didn’t mull over it for too long).

 

Yesterday, she asked me about my legs, and I told her the truth, but I also added that I’m not worrying too much about it. I wanted to feel closer to this girl, because she’s grown on me. It’s not about me longing for a new Mirna: I could never have another Mirna, she’s buried under the ground, but kept alive in my heart. Rada is the one that I believe already accompanies me in getting back on my feet mentally, and who will also accompany me as I get back on my feet physically.

  
  


_July 14th, 2017_

 

This diary’s pages are running out, and it’s such a shame that since the early 2000s I’ve only been using it as an agenda for planning stuff, and even that being on and off (phone’s definitely more convenient).

 

Yesterday I gave Šće a call since it was his birthday: he was really surprised and happy. We talked about daily life stuff, we joked, I never knew I could talk like this with him, too. He really digs his new teaching job, apart from the research centre, and I’m very glad that he’s also having his hands full with kids now.

 

Rada is organising an amazing photography exposition in Split, and she invited me as a guest artist even if I’m pretty much just a casual events photographer and hobbyist. She said that she believes I’ve got to be there, so I might as well book a flight today, else I won’t be able to get any good deals.

 

Today, Mirna would’ve celebrated her 37th birthday. The chestnut tree I buried her under was still standing when I left Split, I hope it hasn’t gotten hollow. The more I thought of Mirna these days, the more I felt unprepared and embarrassed whenever I caught a glimpse of her dark twin tails in the corner of my eye, so she must be timid about it too.

 

When I’ll finally be standing again in front of your tree, Mirna, I’ll let you come to me. And I hope that you’ll want to stand before me again, too. I want to hug you and lift you up in the air again.

  
**DON’T FORGET** — book flight to Split  

**Author's Note:**

> NOTES
> 
> In this fic, Dražen is working as a kindergarten educator, now residing in a flat in Split; he’s had this job since the early 70s, albeit in different parts of the country.
> 
> Mirna is a girl from a neighboring apartment building: her only remaining relative is her grandmother, Mojca. Dra’s had talks on and off with baba Mojca regarding who is Mirna going to be left with after she dies (she’s elderly and sick, but refuses to receive proper treatment). At the point of beginning of this fic, Mojca is fortunately taking him into consideration for real.
> 
> The execution of the Ceaușescu couple on December 25th 1989 marks the apparent end of the Romanian Revolution; Mihai is the name Dra uses for Romania, and Anca is my OC for Transylvania (and Ro’s sister).
> 
> Extra on these siblings for anyone interested: Ro picked up Mihai as a second name (most Romanians do bear a middle name nowadays, too) during the 1920s, replacing the archaic Vlad, short for the horrible Vladislav. Each nation reserved their rights to calling him any of them (Vuk never switched to Mihai, for example), but nowadays, he’s pushing again for people to call him Vlad. Dra got the chance to interact a lot with Anca during the Aus-Hun period, but their relationship since then has been on and off because of personal or national problems. They kinda care about each other a lot, though.
> 
> Slovenia’s already polished its strategy in case of a Yugoslav invasion by the end of 1990. YNA (or the English YPA) is the acronym for the Yugoslav Peoples’ Army.
> 
> In this fic and my overall headcanon, Milica is working at a puppet theatre for children during these years. Jalal’s wandering around Southern Europe or even farther on shady funds. Idriza’s in the military, but also acts as an informant as a butcher in a store.
> 
> The tragic event that led to Mirna's death actually happened in Split, unfortunately. For this and other events that link to the Croatian War, if you aren’t able to find what you want about them, you can drop me a message (I worked only with websites though).
> 
> During modern times, Dra’s managed to start up his own bakey & confectionery shop, but he also works in photography on the side.
> 
> A headcanon of mine is that nations can see “ghosts”, as to say, of persons, be them public or not, they were very close to but are now dead. It’s not a voluntary action the first time it happens, and this is why Dra’s bewildered he can “see” Mirna now too. Those persons appear as pretty much real and bodied to the nation which can conjure them up, but they are unseen and cannot interact with regular people or other nations, unless those other nations have had a strong bond with that person as well.


End file.
